Wouldn’t this thing look great gliding through ElecTRONica at the Disney California Adventure theme park? (Too bad Disney doesn’t allow guests to bring Segways into the parks. And I live in Florida, not California…)

Making of the Tron Segway

So how did I transform the Segway into something one step short of a Light Cycle? Honestly, I didn’t change all that much on it. The Segway is already a pretty futuristic device and would instantly fit in with the world of Tron without any modifications.

My equipment:

One roll of white 2″ wide 3M reflective safety tape

One Target-brand battery-powered strand of blue LED Christmas lights

Scissors

Electrical tape

Segway i2 PT

And that’s it! To plan the design, I first took pictures of the front and back of the Segway:

Then I sifted through a bunch of Tron Legacy images before I decided to model my design after this costume:

I brought the Segway pictures into Photoshop and mocked up the design:

After completing and printing the design, I sat down with my roll of reflective tape and scissors and begin to piece it together, strip-by-strip. Here’s what it looked like halfway through:

And a photo of the finished product:

The reflective tape looks plain white under normal ambient light, but when hit directly by a light beam, it reflects brightly back and resembles the glowing Tron Legacy costumes, Light Cycles, and everything else on the Grid:

Here’s a closer look at the pattern on the wheel shields:

Finally I moved on to adding blue LED lights to give the Tron Segway some kind of glow even when the tape wasn’t reflecting light. I had recently purchased several sets of battery-powered lights during Target’s after-Christmas clearance sale at just $3 each.

The round Segway logo in the front easily pops off, snaps back on and has convenient slots running around it, so it was simple to insert the LEDs, fasten them with electrical tape, and close it back up:

I placed the battery box and switch for the lights just behind the lean bar, between where my feet go while riding the Segway. Again, it’s fastened only by electrical tape. It’s a temporary solution until I find a more appropriate adhesive or mount.

The completed Tron Segway

All in all, the transformation from “ordinary” Segway i2 into my new Tron Segway took around 4 hours, including design, planning, and installation. Shooting these photos and creating the video took another couple hours. I should also mention that the light-up disc featured in the photo at the top of this article is not part of the customization. I placed it there just to make the photo look even more awesome.

Here are some more pictures of it all put together:

And before you rank me up there with Tron Guy, I’ll mention that these additions to the Segway are not just for looks. They do add a great deal of safety to it, as I will now feel better about gliding around at night knowing that I’ll be quite visible to cars as their headlights reflect off of the newly-added details – and I’ll be sporting bright blue LED headlights of my own.

Owner and Editor of Inside the Magic. Since growing up in Miami, Florida and ultimately moving to Orlando after college, Ricky has become an expert on Central Florida's many theme parks and attractions. He founded Inside the Magic in 2005.

Ricky Brigante

Well, yeah, there’s THAT. But that’s not a Light Cycle. That’s a motorcycle made to look like a Light Cycle. I meant… there’s no such thing as a REAL Light Cycle. You know, the one with the solid wall of glowing light coming out the back. The one that magically appears after you hold a baton like handlebars. THAT Light Cycle doesn’t exist. 😉

tardis_trekkie

Josh

Your TRON Segway certainly looks cool, but do you actually use it? No offense but riding a Segway around must be embarrassing enough as it is, with people pointing you out as too lazy to actually walk down to the shops. But with the stickers and lights, now you’re really drawing attention to yourself, saying “hey, not only am I too lazy to walk, but I also think I’m the TRON guy” 🙂

Ricky Brigante

Not at all embarrassing. In fact, most comments I get from onlookers think it’s quite the ride and are curious about it. Other than the high price tag, most people seem to like it. And no one walks around here. Everyone drives. So how is riding a Segway to the store any different than driving? In fact, it’s better… no gas needed!

Furthermore, diphenhydramine benadryl taken
at night as a sleep aid may impair reaction time in a row,
a new study requested by the Food and Drug Administration to ban ammonia-sulfite caramel color.
It was like,” Yeah, have them hit me up. A nutrition Label will tell you how you want to release it.

Based in Orlando, Florida, Inside the Magic was created in 2005 by Ricky Brigante. What started as a tiny web site and short weekly podcast has grown to the multimedia-driven experience it is today, focusing on bringing you all things fun, every day.

ITM is the ultimate source for the most interesting, entertaining, and unique entertainment experiences, covering theme parks, movies, TV, video games, conventions, special events and so much more.

We don’t try to cover everything. Instead, we carefully select only the most exciting and unique stories to write about.